N4C Weekly Brief: June 26 – July 2

FEATURED NEWS

Global Charities Say Using Companies’ Carbon Offsets to Lower Emissions Undermines Climate Targets
Wall Street Journal, Yusuf Khan, 2 July

The Wall Street Journal covers a letter signed by over 80 charities arguing that using carbon offsets delays climate action. The letter is addressed to private sector leaders, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol urging them to continue to exclude carbon offsets from their methodologies on how companies can lower emissions. BusinessGreen shared a letter delivered last week from a different set of environmental NGOs expressing support for allowing companies to include some carbon credits to address their Scope 3 emissions. Financial Times reports that the CEO of the SBTi has decided to step down from his role for personal reasons and Chief Legal Officer Susan Jenny Ehr was named as interim CEO. BusinessGreen covers a study from the Climate Crisis Advisory Group that finds the voluntary carbon market can be a major solution for the climate crisis, but major changes are needed to verify the claims of its credits. Reuters reports that Amazon is backing the development of a new carbon credit verification standard called Abacus, a framework for verifying the quality of carbon offsets in reforestation and agroforestry with carbon registry Verra. Despite financially supporting the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, Amazon claims they have worked on Abacus to set a more ambitious standard despite the risk of it creating market confusion.

Analysis: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the ‘size of Birmingham’
Carbon Brief, Josh Gabbatiss and Verner Viisainen, 26 June

Carbon Brief reports that every nation in the UK has failed to meet their reforestation goals since set in 2020, falling short of targets by an area of forest nearly equivalent to the size of Birmingham. BusinessGreen carries a commentary from Business Declares’ Ben Tolhurst stressing the urgent need for the next UK government to follow through on commitments to restore nature. DowntoEarth carries a commentary from Ramesh Venkataraman, trustee of nature restoration nonprofit Junglescapes, detailing why India must also pursue nature restoration for its economy. Euronews reports that green groups warn the new EU Strategic Agenda could weaken environmental protections and climate ambitions.

Bunge announces progress in its non-deforestation commitments
Feed Navigator, 

Feed Navigator reports that US agribusiness giant, Bunge, has brought its deforestation cutoff date forward by 12 months to the end of this year. BusinessGreen reports that Lidl and WWF have announced a five-year strategic partnership to promote biodiversity and responsible sourcing across 31 countries that contribute to the budget retailer’s supply chain. Eco-Business covers a Friends of the Earth report that finds Astra Agro Lestari illegally cultivated palm oil within Indonesian national forest estates, seized land from farmers and intimidated human rights defenders as it has expanded its plantations. The Guardian dives into the growth of wood pulp as a sustainable material for clothing that may lead to deforestation of 1,000-year-old forests in South America. DW explores whether the soon-to-be-implemented EU Deforestation Regulation can curtail global deforestation. Reuters reports that there is an ongoing divide between EU lawmakers on whether the regulation should be delayed or go into effect on Dec. 30th, 2024. Human Rights Watch shares a commentary it published in Folha de São Paulo exploring whether Brazil’s cattle sector will be forced to follow Brazilian law with the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation.

Mindset ‘quickly shifting’: Almost 100 firms commit to TNFD disclosure framework
BusinessGreen, Stuart Stone, 28 June

BusinessGreen covers an announcement from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) that it has seen a 30 percent increase in adoption of its corporate reporting recommendations since January after 96 firms signaled their intention to adhere to its nature-related disclosure framework. 416 firms have now committed to disclose material nature-related issues to investors and stakeholders based on TNFD’s recommendations and will utilize a suite of new of sector-specific guidance resources from TNFD. Eco-Business covers a new white paper from UNDP that identifies gaps in data availability and accessibility that have slowed down the adoption of nature-related disclosure mechanisms in Asia. Edie reports that the Science Based Targets initiative has confirmed a 102% increase in the number of companies setting targets aligned with climate science in 2023.

Canada’s 2023 wildfires outsmoked global aviation, yet emissions go uncounted
Mongabay, Liz Kimbrough, 27 June

Mongabay reports that 2023 Canadian wildfire emissions were greater than the global aviation industry’s emissions, but the nation’s carbon accounting methodology excludes wildfire emissions from U.N. reports. Reuters reports that wildfire emissions from Russia’s Arctic region are also increasing significantly.

SPOTLIGHT – Building Bridges for Nature Finance in London

On June 26th, business leaders, sustainability managers, asset owners, institutional investors, and developers of nature tech or nature-based solutions joined the Nature Positive Hub at the London Climate Action Week. The day’s discussion debated where the private sector should focus efforts to accelerate the transition towards a net-zero, nature-positive future. The participants also explored compelling business cases for nature, key barriers hindering progress, as well as potential strategies to surmount these obstacles. Nigel Topping, the former UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP26, opened the event, addressing the ‘cognitive traps’ behind nature finance and investments in this area. Around 30 other experts spoke during the day.

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SPOTLIGHT – Implementing High-Integrity Nature-Based Solutions with naturebase

Nature4Climate’s Lucy Almond and The Nature Conservancy’s Peter Ellis joined the Nature IS podcast to share why naturebase is a game-changer for helping the world identify high-integrity nature-based solution projects that significantly impact carbon mitigation while enhancing livelihoods and preserving biodiversity.

Nature4Climate’s naturebase is a new interactive platform that brings together science-based data on nature’s pathways to benefit the climate by showing where, why and how to implement high-integrity nature-based projects with the highest carbon mitigation impact whilst improving livelihoods and protecting biodiversity.

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FOR YOUR INFORMATION

The Natural Climate Solutions Alliance (NCSA), the Forest Investor Club (FIC) and ERM published an investor guide, providing insights to investors on how to identify and invest in high-integrity NCS projects.

Audubon and The Nature Conservancy highlight the Great Bear Sea Agreement, a collaboration between First Nations and the Government of Canada, which raised $335 million for First Nations co-management and coastal economies.

IUCN updates its Red List of Threatened Species, which now includes 163,040 species, of which 45,321 are threatened with extinction, surpassing its goal to assess 160,000 species.

EDF shares its analysis of a new pricing guide for tropical forests nations by experts, which finds that jurisdictional REDD+ carbon credit prices are set to increase significantly by 2028.

WWF explains how debt-for-nature swaps help protect forests, leading governments and conservation organizations to invest over $380 million in forest conservation projects.

TNFD shares new guidance for eight economic sectors to apply the LEAP approach, alongside updated guidance for financial institutions to apply the TNFD recommendations and final guidance on value chains.

IETA publishes a report exploring the need to finance natural climate solutions in order to meet Paris Agreement goals, halt and reverse nature loss, and recover nature’s ability to sequester carbon.

Transition Finance shares three chapters of its series on developing a new paradigm for carbon markets, which highlight the role of government participation, natural climate solutions, and carbon credits for the energy transition.

International Platform for Insetting calls for survey responses as part of a landmark study on insetting practices, trends, and the market landscape.

SBTi releases its 2023 Monitoring Report, highlighting a 102% growth in the number of companies with science-based targets, largely fueled by growth in Asia.

NCS IN THE REAL WORLD – Trees for Life

N4C is compiling an index of NBS case studies, together with an interactive map, to highlight action on the ground. Each week, we will be choosing a case study to present, to help give concrete examples of work being done to bring NBS theory into practic.

WHERE: SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, UK
TYPE OF NCS SOLUTION: RESTORE

The Trees for Life project has planted over two million trees, with a long-term goal of rewilding the Sottish Highlands and ensuring the Caledonian Forest grows from the last patches of the original wild forest that remain.

The United Kingdom has the opportunity to sequester 2.1 MtCO2e/yr by 2050 if it meets its potential for reforestation.

See more details on the potential for natural climate solutions on N4C’s naturebase platform and find examples of real projects using the N4C case study map.

GOOD NEWS

‘Homes for Nature’: Housebuilders promise bird-nesting bricks and hedgehog highways in new homes

More than 20 of the UK’s largest homebuilding companies have signed a voluntary commitment to install bird-nesting bricks and create hedgehog highways on all new developments.

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